SNL 40: Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg Pay Tribute to Breaking Character With New Digital Short

In between all of the tributes and montages and musical performances, the SNL 40th Anniversary Special actually found time for some original content. Right after a montage celebrating the short films that have been featured on the show over the years, Zach Galifianakis took to the stage to introduce a new digital short from Andy Samberg and Adam Sandler. Unlike most of Samberg’s original shorts, which usually traded in genial silliness, this one looked inward and examined a subject that everyone who has ever been on the show should be familiar with: breaking character.

Shifting between musical genres at the drop of a hat, the digital short features Samberg and Sandler paying tribute to all of those times when an SNL performer unintentionally cracks up in a scene. Although it’s technically not something that’s supposed to happen, everyone knows that the biggest laughs always occur when the actors on the stage are having so much that they can’t even do their job right. The song itself, while certainly catchy, isn’t going to become a ‘Lazy Sunday’ or ‘D*ck in a Box’-sized internet sensation. However, it is a ton of fun, especially when the song goes out of its way to call out Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz for breaking character more than anyone else in the show’s history.

Oh, and there’s a great moment where Samberg alludes to the universally reviled ‘That’s My Boy,’ which Sandler does not appreciate.

The SNL 40 show has been fueled almost entirely by nostalgia, but it’s genuinely nice to see Samberg back in a Digital Short. More importantly, it’s nice to see Adam Sandler in anything that doesn’t make us want to hurl ourselves off a cliff. Thank you for the feelings, SNL.